CVG still stands for 'Cincinnati Very Good'

Steve Stevens

As a Kenton County Airport Board member in 1974, Apollo astronaut Neil Armstrong coined the phrase: "CVG - Cincinnati Very Good." In 36 years, a lot has happened that has made this a true statement about our Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport that goes by the call letters "CVG." Without question, the airport has been the single largest economic driver of our region, at its peak employing upwards of 10,000 direct jobs and churning tens of thousands of additional indirect and support jobs throughout the area.

We can thank lots of things for this economic effect, including our strategic location, unsurpassed airport infrastructure, and visionary and effective leadership in business and government. But in the end, the reality is that it has been the presence of Delta Air Lines' domestic hub (once its second largest) that has attracted hundreds of companies to our community and millions of passengers through the terminal gates. Delta's presence at CVG is as old as the airport itself. In January of 1947, an American Airlines flight became the first commercial landing at CVG. Moments later, Delta landed the second.

But when it comes to air service at CVG over the past two years, the news has often been grim. In 2005, the airport saw more than 600 flights occur daily at its runways carrying a total of 21 million passengers. In less than five years, announcement after announcement foretold plummeting numbers of flights and passengers as our air service diminished. In 2009, only 10.6 million passengers were counted at CVG - barely half of what traveled through the airport in 2005. In December, more bad news came as five additional destinations were to be discontinued in February, taking our number of daily flights to 160-175 and direct flights to just 70 cities. We still use the term "hub" for the Delta presence that exists at CVG, but now it is used more loosely since the number of Delta flights here now make it the airline's fifth largest hub. Certainly, the elimination of international destinations - Rome, Amsterdam and London - have been equally disappointing and even troubling to those of us interested in recruiting multinational corporations and headquarters operations that were once attracted here by direct flights to key European destinations, where businesspeople could travel, do a day's business and then return the next day.

The Northern Kentucky Chamber has been involved in this issue in numerous ways since warning signs first started. We have been communicating our concerns, support and offers of assistance to airport and Delta Air Line officials for the past four years. The Chamber's board placed "Increasing air service at CVG to create competitive advantage" near the top of our list of priorities on our organization's strategic plan, and we've worked the topic in some way every month since the beginning of our year in September. Airport and airline officials have attended meetings with our board of directors, small meetings with our top leadership and even open forums for our entire membership. We are the voice of the regional business community, the convener of critical stakeholders and often a facilitator on public policy issues. While we don't get a win or the outcome we always want on every issue, we nevertheless continue to perform this work. Simply, it's one of the reasons we exist.

We have appreciated Delta's support over the years and the fact that the service they provided helped us become the vibrant community we are today. If in the future, however, it is clear we are not to be the location they choose to locate major operations, rest assured that it will be your chamber that will be leading businesses and communities to send the message to other air carriers that CVG still means: "Cincinnati Very Good."

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CVG still stands for 'Cincinnati Very Good'

Without question, the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport has been the single largest economic driver of our region. But when it comes to air service at CVG over the past two years,